The 45-year-old Holtz led East Carolina to two consecutive Conference USA championships and 38 victories in four seasons. He also coached at Connecticut in the 1990s in the years before UConn became a Division I-A program.

Holtz is the son of former Notre Dame coach Lou Holtz, now a college football analyst at ESPN.

Leavitt was fired Jan. 8 for allegedly striking one of his players and then lying about the incident. He has hired an attorney, insisting his dismissal was unwarranted.

Lou wanted him to get the ND job. I'm glad he landed a job somewhere. He seems like a guy that could be a good coach.

January 14th, 2010, 3:36 pm

steensn

RIP Killer

Joined: June 26th, 2006, 1:03 pmPosts: 13429

He just needs to prove himself a little more. Maybe in the next round? I don't think USF is the place to make your case to end up at ND again... but if he can be successful at another school maybe it is a good sign?

Heck, they hire guys who are 8-8 like Kiffin for no apparent reason...

Holland released a statement on the East Carolina athletic website stating that while he and Holtz have talked about the potential of Holtz taking the South Florida job, the deal is not yet done. “[Holtz] indicated that he had not been offered the position nor had he told them that he would accept the position if offered,” Holland wrote.

Holland also noted that Holtz told him that he and USF have agreed to end their conversations on Friday with or without a deal.

Holtz met with his team at 3 p.m. ET to end speculation that he had already taken the job and convey that the process was ongoing. “It should be remembered that a few weeks ago most of those same sources announced that he had taken the Cincinnati head coaching job even though, in that case, he had not been offered nor had he accepted the job,” Holland wrote.